The blue stocking ( English bluestocking ) is characteristic for the Enlightenment "mocking nickname of a learned woman, devoid of charm and completely absorbed in book interests" [1] .
In a broader sense - the ironic designation of a woman whose appearance, personal qualities, behavior, activity, interests and / or lifestyle (or their manifestation in society [2] ) are largely inconsistent with the feminine stereotype about them in her environment - as generally considered appropriate or positive for men and inappropriate or abnormal for women. [2] [3] [4] [5]
The expression was born in England in the 1760s in the salon of the writer Elizabeth Montague (1718-1800). According to one version, the most active and prominent member of this circle was the botanist, writer and translator Benjamin Stillingfleet (1702-1771), who always wore blue wool stockings instead of the black silk prescribed by etiquette. When he missed the meeting of the circle, they said: “We can’t live without blue stockings, today the conversation is going badly - there are no blue stockings!” Thus, the nickname “blue stocking” was first received by the man, and the circle was ironically called “Blue Stocking Society” ". Later, “blue stocking” began to be called women who were interested in literature and science, neglecting home and family.
There is a version that Lady Montagu’s mug was given the name “blue stockings” by Admiral Edward Boscauen (1711-1761), known as “Undaunted Old Man” or “Tortoise Dick”. He was the husband of one of the club’s most enthusiastic members and spoke rudely about his wife’s intellectual pursuits, mockingly calling the club’s meetings the meetings of the Blue Stocking Society. The expression became a household word in England after the poet George Gordon Byron wrote satire to Lady Montagu and called it “ The Blues ”.
In France in the XVII century in Paris there were also salons in which women played a prominent role. And for them there was their own term “learned women” ( French femmes savantes ) under the name of Moliere’s comedy “Scientists women” [6] , which makes fun of “secular false scientists pedants”.
Blue stocking. - A contemptuous term for a woman interested in intellectual matters. Quote Moliere in support
- Gustave Flaubert [5]
Anna Mor, a member of the English Blue Stocking Society, in the ironic poem Bas-bleu, or Conversation, claims that the French name ( fr. Bas-bleu ) was born as a result of a literal translation by some foreigner of English bluestocking.
The expression came to Russia from France.
Women, blue stockings, or red stockings, or women political, parliamentary, departmental - some kind of geeks who cease to be a woman and are unable to be a man.
- P. A. Vyazemsky [3]
Notes
- ↑ Russian linguistics. - Kiev: Vishcha school, 1984. - Vol. 8-11. - S. 70.
- ↑ 1 2 Blue stocking // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- ↑ 1 2 Vyazemsky P.A. Old notebook. 1813-1877 - M .: Zakharov , 2005. - T. VIII Collected Works. - 960 s. - ISBN 978-5-81-590336-4 .
- ↑ Blue // Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language: In 4 volumes / Ed. D.N. Ushakova . - M .: Soviet encyclopedia ; OGIZ ; State Publishing House of Foreign and National Dictionaries , 1935-1940. (inaccessible link)
- ↑ 1 2 Gustave Flaubert . Madam Bovary. A story. Lexicon of common truths / Translation by T. Irinova. - M .: Fiction , 1989. - S. 381-412. - 430 s. - (Classics library).
- ↑ J. B. Moliere . Collected works in two volumes / Translation by MM Tumpovskaya. - M .: Goslitizdat, 1957. - T. 2. - 1380 p.
Literature
- Zgursky G.V. Dictionary of historical terms. - M .: Eksmo , 2008 .-- 464 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-27092-7 .